Mainly Norfolk: English
Folk and Other Good Music

Herod and the Cock / King Pharim

The Watersons sang Herod and the Cock in 1965 on their first LP
Frost and Fire.
It was also included in 1996 on the Topic CD sampler
The Season Round.
A live version from a Christmas radio programme recorded in December 1980 at
Crathorne Hall, Crathorne, North Yorkshire, was published in 2005 on the
Watersons' CD
A Yorkshire Christmas.

A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

A ballad carol, thirty verses long, told of two birds, a crow and a crane
(see also Child 55,
The Carnal and the Crane),
conversing about the story of the Nativity and Herod's attempt to kill the
miraculous baby. Herod and the Cock deals with one incident in this ballad,
that has broken away to lead a life of its own in the form of a short carol.
It is based on a legend of St. Stephen who proves the birth of Christ by
causing the roast chicken in Herod's dish to rise and crow
“Christus natus est”
(Stephen is stoned for his pains). The story seems to have come into Europe
from the Orient, and spread through Byzantium and Russia into Scandinavia and
north-western Europe. The West Midlands—great carol country—seems to have
harboured both the long and short forms of the song. Cecil Sharp obtained
this version from Worcestershire.

The Watersons also sang the related song King Pharim
in 1975 on their album
For Pence and Spicy Ale.
A.L. Lloyd commented in the
sleeve notes:

Ordinary folk kept alive many gospel legends rejected by the parsons. Among
them, the humorous tale of the roasted cock that discomfited Herod by crowing
in his face, and the sly trick of the miraculous harvest by which the
holy family evaded Herod's pursuit. Most of the Watersons' version is
as noted by Lucy Broadwood from gipsy men in Surrey. The concluding verses
originally appeared on a 19th century broadside,
The Carnal and the Crane.
The Oxford Book of Carols was the Watersons' source.